Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) leaders and legislators belonging to communities of scheduled caste have termed the recently-passed Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Bill 2019 a landmark law that has set an example to the entire South Asia regarding the protection of rights of women agriculture workers toiling in fields for centuries without enjoying any legal right of labourers.
The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed the law setting out the rights of women working in the agriculture and livestock sectors.
According to the bill, the women in the farming, fisheries and livestock sectors will not only receive payment in cash for their work equal to that received by male workers but will also participate in the decision-making.
In a joint statement, PPP leaders, including MPA Surendar Valasai, Senator Gianchand, and special assistants to the CM Dr Khatumal Jeewan and Poonjo Mal Bheel, lauded the party chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, for conceiving, sponsoring and pursuing the bill till its passage from the Sindh Assembly.
“The PPP leadership's vision has made Sindh the only province in the country and in the region as well to have formally recognised the women agriculture workers as labour [by] giving them all the rights available to industrial labour,” they said.
The bill empowers the women agriculture workers by making it mandatory that their remuneration for their work will not be less than the minimum wages fixed by the government for the workers.
The PPP leaders pointed out that there was little concept of wages or rights for women in the agriculture sector, even though a majority of them worked round the clock in addition to running their homes and taking care of their children.
They welcomed the passage of the bill that has ensured extensive rights to the women agricultural workers in Sindh. Their rights now include entitlement to a maternity leave of 120 days as well as the leave for Iddat as set in their faith.
Furthermore, women workers having children up to the age of two years are also entitled to breastfeed their children in safe and hygienic conditions. “The women in this [agriculture] sector shall perform work free from all forms of harassment or abuse as laid out in the relevant law prevailing in the province,” the PPP leaders said.
The female agricultural workers shall now also receive a written contract of employment if they wish, and are entitled to fair arbitration, particularly with respect to the wages, payment schedules and working conditions that include health and safety.
Besides putting strong checks on discrimination against the women in terms of employment opportunities, wages or working conditions on the bases of caste, religion, ethnicity or residential status, the Sindh government will also issue Benazir Women Income Agricultural Worker’s Cards to the female agricultural workers, the scheduled caste leaders of the PPP said, adding that a majority of the women belonging to the communities of the scheduled caste in Sindh worked as labourers in the agriculture sector without any rights, due to which there was an alarming rate of suicide among these women.
“This legislation gives hope to the hopeless and PPP leadership, especially Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, have [made] history by providing protection to the huge population marginalised since centuries,” they said and asked the other provincial governments of the country to follow Sindh in this regard and ensure due rights to their women agricultural workers.
from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2ZqklTH
The News International - Karachi
